We’re going to a very familiar passage of script scripture in the book of acts chapter 9 verse 1 through 10.
In many ways, this moment is a hinge of most of the new testament epistles is predicated on what happens in these tinned verses.
Acts chapter 9 verse 1 through 10 when you have it same man.
It starts out in and says, and Saul, you will see throughout the Bible, his name, mentioned Saul, and then Paul.
But it’s the same person and Saul who becomes the apostle Paul of the new testament, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went onto the high priest.
He hadn’t been converted yet. He’s gone to the high priest.
A desired of the high priest letters to Damascus.
To the synagogues that if he found any of this way, that’s what they were called before they were called Christians, the way He said, if I find any of them, whether they were men or women, he might bring them down onto Jerusalem.
By the way, Jerusalem is not a country. Israel is a country.
Jerusalem is the city.
So if you’re praying for Israel, if you’re praying for Palestine, pray broad, Don’t just pray for Jerusalem.
It’s like somebody blowing up Dallas and you praying for Arlington. Jerusalem is quite small.
Very important. Yeah. But quite small. Tel Aviv is in flames. Come on somebody.
Gaza is in flames. Innocent palestinians are in flames.
And if you’re gonna pray, don’t just pray because most of us know Israel from the Bible only.
So that means our ideas are imaginative. But in reality, Israel is a country.
In reality, we have Americans over there. We have all kinds of people in trouble.
We’ve got Palestinians in trouble. We’ve got Israelis in trouble. We need peace in the middle east.
Come on with somebody. We need peace and a little bit of justice wouldn’t hurt too.
And we want them terrorists capture. Amen? Amen.
Because they’re trying to we we would call it instigate.
They’re trying to instigate a war that will encompass Iran, Iraq, Jordan, everybody else around it and everything is trimming.
It is in this atmosphere, biblically, Paul is bringing Christians back to Jerusalem to have them tortured, slaughtered in slang.
At this point, he is a terrorist And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus.
And suddenly, their shine round about him a light from heaven sent me.
And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul.
So why persecuted without me? And he said, Who aren’t the lord?
He doesn’t even know who he is. And the lord said, I am Jesus.
Whom thou persecute us.
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, and he trembling an astonished women.
The guy who was going down there to snatch people and destroyed him, god has brought him down to his knees.
He trimbling. God. That’s that’s somebody’s word right there.
Whatever you were scared of, god’s gonna bring it down to his knees.
And he trembling, and astonished said, lord, what will thou have me to do?
And the lord said, under him, arise, and go into the city.
And it should be told, thee, what thou must do.
And the man which journeyed with him, starts speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man and saw the rose from the earth.
And when his eyes were open, He saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
He was blind. And he was there. He was 3 days without sight.
And neither did eat nor drink.
And there was a certain disciple at Damascus’s named Ananias, and to him, said the lord in a vision.
And Anazian, he said, behold, I am here Lord.
I’m gonna use a subject called a blind date.
A blind date. Amen.
Look at somebody and say, you got a blind date. Don’t run. Don’t run.
Father god in the name of Jesus as we go into your word, let it be made flesh in a supernatural way, I think, and believe you, for all that you’re going to do.
Have your way in Jesus’ name. We pray, Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the lord.
According to the Oxford English dictionary, a blind date started in the early 20th century.
It didn’t mean what it meant today.
The work blind date was first used in about 1914, and it was used in a very different kind of way.
The origins of the term are difficult to track, but it is thought that it may have been inspired by the tradition of students at the University of Oxford playing a game called blind button games.
They played these blind button games in which they would take turns pressing another player’s button without knowing who was behind it.
The game evolved over the years. The English language evolved over the years.
Things mean different things in different ages.
Learning to recognize a person only by the feel of their button and the tone of their voice was what it meant at first, it is believed that the term was later applied to romantic encounters.
Where the parties involved would get to know each other without knowing each other what each other looked like.
Uh, a blind date. I, uh, had a little experience like that.
Yeah. It was a it was, uh, quite a while ago.
But I used to drive, uh, a 1979 silver anniversary, Transam, and, uh, we y’all saw it.
Some of y’all saw it with the tea top and the infrared dashboard and I was young and in my teens.
And and the church from other wanted to go up there some place in and have a service.
And I I put mother Boyd in that car.
Now mother Boyd had white hair that she wore it back in a bun.
West Virginia is full of mountains and curves.
By the time we got there, that bun was like sitting. Yeah.
It was kinda sideways on her ear. I didn’t know.
I thought she just needed a ride, but it was a setup because there was this girl up there that he she wanted me to meet.
A long time ago. Long, long time ago.
Long, long long time ago.
And so mother made introduction.
I guess it was supposed to be some sort of blind date or something. You know?
And you know you’re in trouble when an older woman says to you, she got a pretty face.
I see.
Uh, so do.
I mean, I’m a spend the rest of my life looking from the neck up.
That’s what I thought.
You know, I wasn’t as mature spiritually as I am now.
I’ve grown in the lord a good bit, but it it was a blind date sort of thing.
It was a set up it was kinda like a blind day. It didn’t have a 8 to it.
It was because it didn’t last, you know, Well, I didn’t know I was going up here for that.
I was going to praise, lord, and it got set up.
And since we’re blind days in the hallway, work out good for everybody.
I have a certain degree of skepticism about now. Now the the older people know what blind date is.
The younger people swipe left Y’all got a new equivalent. You swipe 11.
They cat fit you. You think you’re going out with the person on the picture, you spread on extra cologne?
Washed everywhere, cleaned everything. Floss your teeth. You have floss your teeth since Vietnam.
Flossil thief and go in here and see that person.
And, oh. Yeah. Yeah.
That that that’s what we call the blind date that y’all y’all do it a little differently.
Uh, it on the on the other hand, sometimes it works out pretty good, because, actually, I kinda kinda it wasn’t exactly a date, but I kinda met my wife is a blind date.
Because she was sending me secret power cards. Uh load. Fluzy.
Going out to the man of god sending me secret power cards, I I didn’t know who it was I appreciate her church and her pastor’s wife came up and said, I got a member who wants to meet you, uh, you know, and she looked at me that kinda way that I knew it was more than prayer.
She said it was because there was an anointing on my life, but I think it was a few other factors down in there too, but anyway, we’re gonna let her keep her at the story.
The way she kept, and I came over and and, uh, she came over looking at all, you know.
And, uh, I decide to put the 8 with the d and make it a date and say, you don’t know anywhere a bachelor can get a good home a male.
And she said, I I’m a get you well.
I’m a get you well, see. Don’t worry about that. Sit right there. I’m a get you well.
And, uh, the problem was she couldn’t cook. So she said, I’ll ask my mother.
I said, that’ll work. And, uh, 40, almost 43 years later.
I’m not telling you to do this, but I dated her 6 months and got married.
Yeah. That’s how sure I was.
That’s how well I knew that’s how certain I was. I knew I knew If he been dating you 12 years and and ain’t made up his mind.
You need to ghost him.
You need to ghost him. Tell all the old people what that means.
They don’t know what that means. Tell them what it means.
Free often set up people on a blind date.
A truly blind date leaves you asking lots of questions to your friend.
I mean, questions that you could only ask a friend.
Like, uh, what does she or he look like?
You know, you don’t wanna sound carnal, but you do wanna know Am I gonna be stuck from the neck up?
Maybe maybe your question is how tall is he, or maybe it’s what’s his credit score?
Maybe it’s where does he work? Does she have children? There’s a lot of questions.
A lot of things I want to know. I want to know.
I want to know before we go into that. I want to know what I wanna do.
I want a briefing. I wanna report I want a five page report and a resume and a background check.
Amen. I want I want a background check. Something wrong with you. I wanna know of it.
You’re gonna wake up in the night standing over my bed with a knife, I’d like to kinda know that.
I think the reason we wanna know so much one is we watch TV and we read all these crazy stuffs going on in the world today.
The part other part of it is the root of the questioning rests in our abhorrence of disappointment.
We don’t wanna be disappointed.
The lack of the ability to interject my opinion in the process is important too.
I don’t, you know, I know in the Bible days they selected the wife for you, but I’m glad I wouldn’t live in back then because I wanna have my mouth and everything.
I don’t want you to select the bare shoes for me.
I want to see them and try them on and film. See, come on.
The vulnerability of being denied the right to select is is a painful thing to not select.
To not choose to not control, especially if you’re a person that likes to be in control, uh, that’s a vulnerable feeling.
After all, who wants to test their risk tolerance in public. There’s nothing like public shame.
Nothing like a public mistake. See, and everything’s public now. Everybody’s a celebrity.
Everybody’s a news reporter and everything’s public.
They don’t have to get the facts right, but it’s all out in public.
You’re living your life out loud all the time. Everybody got an opinion.
You die your hair and somebody got an opinion. You shave your head. Somebody got an opinion about it.
You gain weight. Somebody gotta you look like you’re gaining weight.
I’ll be wanting to type, so do you.
But I know that’s not appropriate. I know that’s I know that’s not appropriate.
That’s not a kind thing to say.
Sometimes I look at the pictures and say, you should find the way to our laws. You know? Yeah.
You know? But I don’t say things like that because because I’m so convicted by the whole spirit.
I would never I would never say anything like that.
You you wanna pick it up at the gate out front, you know, you know, but I don’t say things like that.
You know, my wife is proves that it does have positive outcomes.
Sometimes blind dates do have positive outcomes, but I have control issues and and I want to I want to know.
The truth of the matter is, god is interested in dating.
The whole Bible is a is a love story. The whole Bible is a love story.
Listen to this good. You have to understand from the book of Genesis to the book of revelations, is one big, long love story about a god who is looking for a place to have a date with humanity.
That first date, that first date they went on, you remember, 1st date we went on to the steak house here, and I ordered the primary, and you ordered the teriyaki chicken I remember all this stuff.
Yeah. I know I’m paying all our business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, god arranged the date in the Garden of Eden.
And the Garden of Eden was the place where divinity and humanity cohabitated in the same spot.
It was a rendezvous place. Meet me behind the 711. Meet me over at the garden.
Meet me uh, at the park, meet me over here, meet me over there, god created man and woman from the dust of the earth, and said, meet me in the garden.
This is a parameter. I’ve made the whole earth, but this is our spot.
This is our hangout spot. Yeah. This is our hangout spot.
And when they got in the spot, it was so that there might be a meeting between humanity and divinity, humanity and divinity.
And over and over again, god has looked for a spot to meet with man, a spot, a meeting place like like Jacob, for example, at Bethel.
Jacob gets tired at a place where this rich stone lays his head on a stone and the heavens open up and god says I’ll meet you there.
Somebody say I’ll meet you there. It doesn’t always have to be in the potash house.
Gusses, I’ll meet you there. It could be why you’re washing dishes, god, it says, uh, I’ll meet you there.
It can be on a lunch break at work, and God says, I’ll meet you there.
You can be driving home in the traffic and fussing about the traffic and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit coming to the car and god says, I’ll meet you there.
See, wherever god is is holy, Whoever god is is a sanctuary.
Whoever god is, it’s a special place. He taught Abraham, go to a place I will show you.
I gotta place reserved for us today that I got a place reserved for us to meet at.
And he said, I’m not gonna tell you where it is, but I’ll show you when you get there.
And Abraham takes eyes and can his son and goes to the place that god has prepared to have a rendezvous with him.
Powerful. Or Jacob, when he was trying to find himself, goes up to denial, and there wrestles a man with him to the breaking of day.
And the Bible says when he saw that the day broke, he smelled him at the hip joint, and the hip joint was taken completely out of place.
And Jacob had a meeting with god that left him limping.
A meeting with god will change the way you walk.
Don’t think because you bought a Jesus T shirt that makes you a Christian.
A a real meeting with god will change the way you respond to situations in crisis.
A real meeting with god will get in your personality, your ad to go against your background, where you came from, teach you a new way of responding, living, thinking, breathing, moving, a meeting with god is a powerful thing.
And god says I’ll meet you there. Look at somebody says I’ll meet you there. Amen.
He told Moses to build a tabernacle with the outer court, the inner court, the holies of holies.
And he said, when you come to the holies of holies, I’ll meet you there.
In the person of Shikana glory that sat down in the 3rd dimension of the Tabernacle.
He said, I’ll meet you there. Everything else was in preparation for the meeting.
Delavor and the and and the brazen altar was all preparing you admitting that I’m a sinner, and I’m far from god And so I’ve gotta offer up a sacrifice and the brazen altar.
I’ve got to wash at the labor because I’m guilty. I don’t wanna into your present with guilt and shame.
I’ve gotta come into the most holy place where the candles to operas are.
And where the table of Shoe bread is and have communion with you.
And the closer you get, the richer the communion, the deeper the fellowship, the stronger the connection.
The more I think back on where you brought me from, how you brought me through by the blood of a lamb, how you allowed me to escape the pharaoh that was in my life.
When I look at the wine and the bread, I’m cognizant of the fact that had you not done what you did, I would still be a slave to my sins, but thanks me to god.
You have eradicated my sins You have expunged my record.
You have thrown my pass into the sea of forgetfulness when I bring it up.
You don’t even know what I’m talking about.
Thanks, me unto god who gave me the victory through Jesus Christ, our lord.
And then through the veil, I pass through the veil. The I pass through the veil.
That that would separate me and god. I pass through the veil.
The veil is an important thing because no veil existed in the Garden of Eden and until man sinned, god could look down into the Garden of Eden and see the glory of god reflected back at him through man.
But there’s a veil that comes. Whenever sin comes, it brings a veil. It shuts off your view.
It limits your access. It separates your anointing.
But god designed through Moses that on the day of atonement, the veil would depart, and the priest could go in.
And offer up sacrifice to own the arc of the covenant in a powerful place because god has always been in love with you.
God has always been crazy about you.
God has always wanted a place where he could hang out with you, whether the place was Eden or whether the place was a stone or whether the place was Mount Mariah, or whether the place was where Abraham took Isaac and offered him up as a sacrifice.
God has always wanted a place to you.
And once you get in that place, His provision is always in that place.
The Ram that’s tied in the ticket is waiting on you only when you get in the right place.
Had Abraham climbed any other mountain. There wouldn’t have been a scapegoat there, and Isaac would have been dead.
But thanks be to god that he orders our steps and brings us to the right place at the right time so that we could receive the right blessing to move into what he has for us.
There’s a place for you. There’s a place for you.
There’s a spot that if you get in that spot, at the right time god to open up things to you that he’s got waiting on you.
Do you not understand your eyes have not seen?
Your ears have not heard neither have anything to your heart, the things that god has.
And so, burn up all your plans. Burn up all your ideas.
God’s getting ready to blow your mind with something you didn’t expect.
If you could just get into place for this blind date, you don’t know where it is, but I go show you where it is.
And when I show you where it is, you’re gonna know it’s me because your provisions will be there.
And the Bible said Abraham called the name of that place, jehovah Jabber. He didn’t call god jehovah Jabber.
He called the name of that place, jehovah Jire.
Somebody throw your hands up and say, help me get to the place.
That’s why I don’t have time for a lot of foolishness because I gotta get to the place.
I don’t have time to play games because I gotta get to the place.
I don’t have time to fall out with you because I gotta get to the place.
I don’t have time to worry about who’s jealous of me because I got to get to the place.
I don’t have time to worry about my haters. I gotta get to the place.
There is a place where god is gonna meet with me.
I got a blind date with the god I’ve never seen before. And I’ve gotta get to the place.
That’s why things that used to bother me.
Don’t bother me anymore because I realized I gotta get to the place.
I don’t have time to be distracted, but he says she’s saying, they say, I’ve gotta get to the place.
I got a ram waiting on me.
I I’m a say that again for the people in the back, I got a ram waiting on me.
I got an unexpected blessing waiting on me. I got a divine provision waiting on me.
I gotta answer the prayer waiting on me. I gotta moving mountain waiting on me.
I gotta line with his jaws stuck. Waiting on me.
I got honey to eat out of a carcass waiting on me.
God’s got blessings for me that have blown your mind right now.
I don’t know who I’m preaching to, but I’m talking to somebody in this building right now.
God wants to meet with you.
He does just want you to be a church person that goes to church like you’re paying a bill every week.
He wants to have a rendezvous with you.
He wants you to get all that junk and all that foolishness out of your mind and set your affections on things that are above.
Because god wants to show you something. He’s got some things prepared for you. You’re not a throwaway.
You’re not a cast away. I told you last week, you’re not an orphan.
God has a place for you and a blessing for you. That’s why the enemy’s fighting you dummy.
He’s you because god has something for you.
If god didn’t have anything for you, why would he be fighting you?
The enemy is fighting you because god has something better for you. There’s something that’s tied in the ticket.
It can’t get it away. It can’t run away. It can’t crawl away. It can’t move away.
Can’t nobody take what god has for me. What god has for me is for me.
I gotta get to the place that I can receive what’s kinda I don’t know who I’m preaching to.
But Gus got some stuff that’s tied up for you. And you gotta get in the right place.
You gotta get in the right place.
You can’t get that blessing in that place.
You can’t get that blessing in that place over there.
You can’t get that blessing in that place over there. You got into place what god has for you dollars.
You can’t get in North Carolina, South Carolina. What god has for you. You can’t get it in Jamaica.
You gotta get into place. That’s why some of you moved here because you had to be in the place.
Who am I talking to? There’s somebody in this room that you went through a lot of changes because she said this is the place where god talks to me, and I gotta be in the place in times like these I need to be in the place.
I need to be in the place where I can get the blessing of the lord.
Somebody texted me and said, when can we hang out together? I say, when can you come to church?
Glory to god.
You want me to jump over mountains to come see you, and you won’t get up out the bed and come to church in the morning.
You gotta get into place. You have to make an effort to get into place.
When you make an effort to get into place, you appreciate it differently from people who made no effort to get into place.
You want it more. You praise harder. You clap louder. You stand on your feet. You glorify god.
You magnify his name because you didn’t just wander in here.
You didn’t just come in here because you got some stilettos to show off You came because you wanna get into place.
You’ll lay cross straight on the floor. You’ll do whatever you have to do because you wanna get into place.
Somebody giving 15 seconds of a crazy breeze.
Where did it go?
Touch three people say I gotta get into place. I gotta get into play.
I gotta get into place. I gotta come out of all of my junk and all of my habits and all of my sins and all of my foolish.
I gotta get into place. It forgot to crawl. It forgot to pass. It forgot pray.
If I gotta talk in Tom, if I gotta walk around the house singing out of tune, I gotta get into play.
If I gotta my hands like they’re on fire. I gotta get into place.
Whatever it takes for me to get a touch from god. I gotta get into place.
I don’t know who I’m talking to, but I I see a moving man coming. You gotta get into place.
You gotta get into place. You gotta get into place.
Where the glory of the lord is, glory to god, somebody had to get into play.
Your friends didn’t understand your relatives didn’t understand it.
Your neighbors didn’t understand it, but god told you to get into place.
If I’m talking to you, make some noise in this house.
From the Garden of Eden from the Garden of Eden to Genesis 22 Mount Mariah, where Abraham goes to meet with god.
God is always trying to meet with humanity to have a date with us, to connect with us.
To be close to us, to be with us, to in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of the desert, he told Pedro, let my people go that they may worship me in the desert.
He said, I want to have a date with them in the desert.
And even though you’re Ferro, you can’t stop me.
I’ll send frogs, and I’ll send lice, and I’ll send boils, and I’ll turn the water into blood.
But when I get through fighting, I’m gonna win this fight.
Because I’m gonna get my people to the place where they can come and have open access to me and be exposed to me and let my people go that they may worship me.
See, when you’re a worshiper, can’t nobody hold you. Uh, come on. Stay with me.
When you’re a worshiper, can’t nobody hoey, let my people go that they may worship me.
When you’re a worshiper, Can’t nobody bond you, can’t nobody block you, can’t nobody stop you, because god has a place for you to be you’d be surprised that the people that try to hold you back.
But the more you worship god, god made that pharaoh turn you loose that you might be free to worship him.
And some of you are happy right now because this is the first time in your life that you have really been free to worship, free to praise, free to lift him up, free to give god the glory.
That’s why I wouldn’t let nobody stare me down.
When I get ready to praise god, you can watch but I’m gonna praise him while you watch.
Because when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he’s done for me, my soul prize out of hallelujah.
Thank you, lord, for it. Saving. Me.
It was all about a meeting.
Look at your neighbor’s saying it was all about a meeting. Tell your neighbor was all about a date.
I had a date. I had a time. I had a moment. I had a second in history.
Lord don’t let me miss my date. Lord don’t let me miss my date.
Lord don’t let me miss my time. Lord don’t let me miss my moment.
Don’t let me get to the right place at the wrong time.
I don’t wanna miss this date because I got a date with god. I got a date with destiny.
I gotta date with purpose. I gotta date with miracles. I gotta date with my gift.
I gotta date to be used by god. Don’t let me miss my date.
I don’t mind god using you, you, you, you, you, you, and you.
When it’s your time, may god use you.
But when it’s my time, get out of my way because I got a date with god.
I got a date with Destiny. He’s all done. He has predetermined a date for me.
I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this place, glory to god.
It doesn’t do any good to do the right thing at the wrong time.
I gotta do the right thing at the right time. I gotta date. I gotta date.
Text 5 people say I got a date. Yeah. I got a date. I got a date.
I got a date. I got a date. I got a date. I’ve got a date. I’ve got a date.
Some of y’all ain’t been able to say that for 6 years.
You better say it while you got a chance. I gotta date. I gotta date. I gotta date.
I gotta date. I gotta fix myself up. I gotta date. I gotta date. I gotta clean myself up.
I gotta date. I gotta date. I gotta watch what I say. I gotta date. I gotta date.
I gotta get my beard right. I gotta date. I got a date. What’s your nigga? I got a date.
I got a date. If you go through that much trouble for a person, how much more are you to go through trouble to get ready for god.
I got a date with god. I have a date with god. I have a date.
If I gotta worship the labor, If I have to lay a lamb on the altar, whatever it takes, I got a date with god.
I can’t miss this date. I’m running out of time. I can’t miss this date.
I can’t answer every phone call. I can’t put out every fire.
On every crisis because I got a date. I don’t know who I’m talking to, but you’ve been distracted.
Your days of distraction are over I declare a focus is coming in your spirit.
You’ve got a date with god, whoever I’m preaching to glory to god.
You missed the last day, but you’re not gonna stand him up this time.
You’re gonna be in the right place at the right time, and something amazing is gonna happen in your life.
I could feel it in my hand. I could feel it in my feet.
I could feel it in my soul.
I could feel it in my hand by I can feel it in my dance.
I I can feel it in my league. I can feel it in my run. I’m a cited about it.
I gotta date somebody. Hold on. I gotta date.
After 40 years of dating in a tent, God finally set up a house called Solomon’s Temple, and he set up Solomon’s Temple so that we would have a stabilized place to be.
It means my wandering is over. My search is over. I’ve come to a place of stability.
Solomon’s temple means I can come to the same place every time I’m not on the move. I’m not nomadic.
I’m not traveling. I’m not on the move.
I know who I am. I know where I am. I have possessed the land, and Solomon’s temple is where we hang out with God.
I like glory to god. It’s a date with god. It’s a date with god.
It’s a date with god. I have a date with god.
It’s about the truth of the matter is when Gabriel came to Mary, and said, hell, Mary, you’ve been highly favored amongst women you should bring forth a son, and his name should be called Jesus.
Jesus is a meeting place. Between humanity and divinity.
He is all the way man and all the way god. Jesus is where humanity and divinity meet together.
Jesus is where it’s a place where grace and truth are met together.
Rightsness and peace have kids to each other.
Truth shall spring up out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven Yay, I, the lord will give that, which is good, and our land shall yield her increases talking about Jesus.
Jesus is a meeting place. He is Emmanuel. He is god tabernacleed with us.
He is god living amongst us. He is god hanging out with us. It is god at the bowling alley.
It is god playing ping pong with us.
It is god coming down to our level He said my thoughts are above your thoughts, my ways are above your way.
You’ll never be able to reach high enough to reach me.
So since you can’t reach me, I’ll come down where you are.
Mary, let me borrow some flesh, and I’ll wrap myself up in a body because I got a date.
I got a date. I got a date.
I got a date that when the date was fully come, it didn’t matter that they didn’t have a house they had a date.
God said we’ll have a date if we gotta meet in the barn.
If we gotta hang out behind the bushes, I gotta date with you.
This is a place where humanity and divinity have collided with each other.
And all the magic came to bring gifts. They didn’t even fully realize what had happened.
Heaven had come to Earth. The kingdom had come. The will of god had come down.
The celestial had touched the terrestrial, the divine had touched the human.
The holy had touched the humane in Jesus Christ. They were all met together. It’s a date.
Jesus is god, having a date with man. Jesus is god, having a date with humanity. Jesus is god.
Having a date with righteousness. Jesus is god, holding this meeting human that Jesus is god.
God wanted to date with us.
For god, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have ever left.
This is a love story. This is a love story. This is not a scandal. This is not an embarrassment.
This is not about a young girl gone wild. This is not about somebody getting pregnant.
This is a love story. This is how far god would go to get to you.
This is how far god would go to reach you.
This is how far god would go to reach you that he would wrap himself up in the dressing room.
Of marriage rule and come walking out like a man.
And the Bible said he became, uh, obedient up to death and took on him the form of a servant so that he could have a date with a slave.
Come on. Come on. Come on. Go with me. Go with me. Go with me.
Go go with me. Go with me. Go with me. Go with me. Go with me.
These dates, see smallness, express the attitude of god and how far god will go to get who he wants.
God will go in the club to get who he wants.
God will go in the strip club to get who he wants.
He’ll go in the drug house to get who he wants.
He’ll go in the crack house to get who he wants.
He’ll go into a bin of inequity to get who he wants. Everybody got to get them in church.
Somebody, he spit you around on the bar and said, you don’t have no business in here.
Somebody, you had to leave out the hotel room. Saying none wrong, but I got to go.
Some some pulled you out. Some pulled the reason you were here this morning is because some pulled you out.
The Bible said no man can come to the father, say the spirit drawing. The spirit threw you out.
You didn’t just come on your own.
The spirit drew you out because god has a purpose and a plan for your life.
I don’t know who I’m talking to, but somebody in this room, god drew you out.
You said you were coming, but god threw you out.
You said you weren’t finished partying, but god threw you out.
You had a dope deal pendant, but god drew you out.
You’re about to make you some on the side, but god drew you out.
Oh, that’s why you ought to give him the highest praise because god drew God drew you out.
He drew you out. He drew you out. He drew you out. Somebody shout a hallelujah.
So in our Texas morning, It almost reads like an ambush.
It’s a setup. Saul does not know that he has a date with god.
I like it. I like it. Saul is busy operating off a old commandment.
The old commandment being the old testament. He is being obedient to what god did say.
Not what god is saying.
Some people are loyal to what god has said but not loyal to what god is saying.
Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that that proceeded out of the mouth of god.
That means I got to live in his mouth. I got to stay close to him.
So that I can get updates. If I don’t get updates, I’ll be operating off of old dates.
And if I’m operating off of old dates, I don’t have an update.
And if I don’t have a update, I’m gonna miss my blind date. So I gotta get it together.
So I understand that I’m not operating saw was operating off an old day. He wasn’t wrong.
He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t wicked. He wasn’t bad. He just hadn’t got a update.
The other day, my phone was acting crazy. I thought it had lost its mind.
I thought, well, maybe I got to buy a new one.
And then looked in the phone and realized there’s nothing wrong with my phone. It just needed.
There may not be anything wrong with you.
You might just need an update. You might need an update. You might need an update.
You might be operating off a old date and think you’re serving, god, and you don’t even know what you’re doing.
And you’re you’re killing who’s god is raising. You’re tearing down what god is trying to erase.
You’re messing up your house messing up your life, messing up your marriage, all in the name of the lord because you got a old date.
And not a uh-huh. Come on. Come on. We’re gonna get this.
We’re gonna get the me and you, we’re gonna get this today.
Everything that Saul has experienced is circumspectly in alignment with his current situation.
It’s it makes sense that Saul would act this way. Saul was raised to think this way.
He was taught to think this way.
Many theologians and scholars think that Saul was a boy, who was holding the coat when they stoned Stefan.
So all over his life, he’s been around Christian killers, and he calls himself defending jehovah. Not fighting jehovah.
He calls himself defending jehovah because when you’d have an old day, you can innocently do damage to good people because you’re operating off an old date.
When you got an old date, you’ll put women out of the church because they’re wearing pants.
When you gotta old day. You you you won’t let him in the altar because he got no makeup.
When you got a old date, you wanna establish somebody in the kingdom of god.
Because a man is wearing a hat.
If you got an old day, you got an old memo, women should be wearing lipstick.
If you got an old day, you were major on the minor and minor on the major.
Saul has an old date. He doesn’t have an update.
What’s wrong with a lot of our churches, even in this contemporary society, is that we’re operating off an old date.
They’re preaching off an old date. They don’t have an update.
They don’t have a present revelation of who god is right now. They don’t know who he is right now.
They know who he was to their fathers, but they don’t know who he is right now.
So they can’t touch this generation because they got this depression mentality.
They’re preaching like they were back in the twenties, and they don’t have a word from god. It’s a what?
From god. Is there a word from the law? Can I preach? I’m about to feel like preaching now.
I didn’t fool around. Got myself happy.
I need a word from gut, a present word, a right now god, not a logos, but a rhema, a right now god, a gut right now.
A god that can fix this moment, a god for this present danger, a god for this attack that’s happening right now.
Give us this day. Our daily bread and forgive us our trespassing as we forgive those who trespass against us.
But Saul has no update. He has an old day. Yes.
Psychology suggested the past experiences are strong likelihoods of what the person’s next experience will be like.
Like, if I’ve been a murderer all my life, why would you think I wouldn’t kill you?
If I’ve been a Philander or all my life, why would you think that I would be up right with you?
A person’s past behaviors and predictor of their future behavior.
That’s what psychology suggests is a feasible way of deducting what a person is capable of.
Once I learn what you’re capable of, I handle you a little bit different.
It’s it’s not that I don’t forgive you, but I watch you.
When my real folks over here, I’ve I’ve forgive you, but I’m watching you.
I forgive you, but I’m watching you.
I’m looking at you because now that I know what you’re capable of, I didn’t know you could talk to me like that, but now that you show me that you’re capable of talking to me like that, now when you say nice stuff, I take it with a grain of salt, because I don’t know when you’re gonna switch on me.
Come on. We’re not are there any real people Did did any real people come to did did did did did did any real people come to church this morning?
And thank you for showing me what you’re capable of.
Thank you for showing me what you’re capable of. So I don’t put too much weight on you.
So I don’t lean on you too much. So I don’t expect too much for it.
Thank you for showing me that the chair might fall.
So I might sit in such a way that if it falls, I don’t have to go down with it.
Come on for showing me. Hallelujah, you ought to take a minute and praise God for what your enemies taught you.
Unwittingly, he has become the executor of genocide.
Saul single handedly is trying to eradicate Christians. It’s genocide.
He wants to purge them out. He wants to clean them out.
He sees them as spots in the feast of charity of Israel. He thinks they need to be removed.
He thinks they’re a cult. He thinks they’re demonic. He thinks they’re evil.
That’s why he thinks nothing of killing men, women, boys, and girls is genocide.
And he’s on his road to Damascus.
He’s on the Damascus road, and he’s got a bunch of men with him to serve because if you teach anything long enough, somebody will follow me.
If if if you teach anything long or somebody will follow, and he’s got little band of minions that are following him.
Uh, he he has spent his influence to ascertain credentials.
He has gone to the high priest and used his influence to get credentials to legalize his his genocide his assault on humanity, his assault to destroy the Christians that will escalate the agenda of ridding orthodoxy of this thorn in his own understanding of accurate theology.
Paul always had a thorn in his flesh.
He had a thorn in his mind before he had a thorn in his flesh.
Come on, talk to me, somebody. He had a thorn in his mind.
That’s what made him kill Christians and thought it was holding his that was a thorn in his mind.
And now later on, we’ll find out he has a thorn in his flesh.
He has built a team of cohorts surrounding him. He has become the Saddam Hussein of a massive revolution.
He has become the Adolf Hitler of his era bent uh, of of his era bent on eradicating the seemingly cultish teaching called the way.
He’s out to destroy him. He’s out to acknowledge.
You need to understand that there are some people who live to kill you.
Jesus told Peter Simon Simon Sadan has desired to have you that he might sift you as weak, but I prayed for you that your faith fell, do not There are people who are just trying to sift you as we to get your last nerve.
You ain’t got the 3 left. Stay after that last nerve.
They try to get to that last nerve so that you can revert to who you used to be so that they could go live.
I thought she was a child of god. I thought she was a missionary.
I thought she was a church mother. And then it made you cuss them out.
Come on somebody. Come on.
So all they’re trying to do is try to entice you.
Back to being who you were, to draw you back.
There are people who are anointed to get on your nerves.
He wants to use his influence garnered from the priest making his terroristic efforts seem heroic, making his terroristic efforts seeing heroic.
Isn’t it funny how the people who terrorize you, get a little posse and make themselves a hero.
Am I preaching? Come on here. They make themselves a hero.
When you write the story, you’re always innocent. Oh, I’m preaching good lord at mercy.
I’m preaching good. I may have to go watch this on YouTube. Myself, this is good.
See, there’s such a thin line between revelation and religious dogma.
There’s there’s a thin line between revelation and religious dogma.
He is in on journey. He’s on a journey between Jerusalem.
You know, if you haven’t been to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, since on a hill, It’s the city set up on a hill that cannot be here.
It sits up on a hill.
You remember the text where the Bible said a certain man went down from Jerusalem?
Jerusalem sits on a hill. It’s set up on a hill. It’s a holy place. It’s a high place.
And and he’s on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus.
The distance between Jerusalem and Damascus is a 143 miles.
That’s a long walk.
When you picture, it’s like walking to your car in the parking lot.
Paul was on the road to the mask. It’s glory to god.
And he saw a great light.
And so while you own the bridge, you’d be looking up waiting on the light to hit you.
He he walked a 140 some miles to see a light.
He walked a 140 some miles in old dates.
And when he was near Damascus, close to Damascus, when he got close to it, religion gateway to revelation.
Dogma gave way to Destiny.
When he got close to revelation, god said, I can’t bring you into your destiny with old data.
Oh, that’s good. Oh, that’s good.
You could use that in a whole lot of way If you don’t get updates, if you don’t get current data, you’ll make bad decisions with old data.
Can I oh god? I gotta hear it.
That’s why I gotta be careful who I let get in my ear.
Because if the wrong person get in your ear, you will dislike somebody without a reason.
You don’t even have no reason to dislike them. But because of what somebody programmed into your head.
Paul has Saul has no reason to hate Christians, but what has been programmed into his head has affected him in such a way that he is snatching him out of the house.
No clothes, no food, no water, and throwing them in Jerusalem and putting them in jail and destroying them and killing them because of what’s in his ear.
Who’s in your ear? Who’s in your ear?
He has gone a 143 miles Every step he and his minions have traveled is a long distance as survival records, they were nearing Damascus.
It takes a long time to really figure out what god really wants you to do You don’t do that in 3 days.
You don’t do that in the weekend. You don’t get wise in 2 weeks.
Watch out for people who get overnight wisdom.
All they’ve been doing is flipping through Instagram.
And they’re quoting some people who lived a life and went through stuff but quoting wisdom isn’t having wisdom.
Wisdom has to work through you. You you gotta walk a long ways.
You gotta endure something. You gotta cry sometime. You gotta moan sometime. You gotta be lonely and still stay.
You gotta be unhappy and still be there. You you gotta be unrecognized and still sir.
You gotta endure something. A 143 miles is a long walk before you get a revelation of who Jesus is seeing.
Who am reaching to this morning? Who am I preaching to this morning?
Now Damascus is a capital city of Syria.
The periodic root word for Damascus’s Dharma and it means subdue.
And the closer he gets to Damascus, he is going to subdue the Christians and get subdued.
And he’s headed to a city whose name means subdued.
And the closer he got to it, he got subdued.
A great light appeared from heaven and chimed down on him, and it began to interrupt his life.
This is a burning bush moment for for Saul. It’s an awakening. It’s an epiphany.
It’s an exciting mo. It’s it’s his road to Emeus where he finds out the stranger is his savior.
It’s his road to Emeus. It’s his upper room moment where Jesus just shows up in the door, and he walks through a closed door.
God doesn’t always announce your next.
God doesn’t always announce you’re next.
Whoever this message is for, it’s just gonna hit you.
It’s go it’s gonna hit you suddenly.
You ain’t even gonna see it coming. This is a blind date.
This is a hostile takeover. This is a sudden move of god.
This is god’s alarm clock that says enough is enough.
This is god’s saying time is up a change that’s necessary.
Hulteau will shy you. You got to make a move right now.
If you don’t move right now, you’re gonna miss a date. I gotta date to bless you.
I gotta date to bless you. I gotta date to raise you. I gotta date to establish you.
This is godson. I can’t afford to let you